Air entrainment in concrete

Air entrainment is the intentional creation of tiny air bubbles in concrete

Concrete

Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

. The bubbles are introduced into the concrete by the addition to the mix of an air entraining agent, a surfactant

Surfactant

Surfactants are compounds that lower the surface tension of a liquid, the interfacial tension between two liquids, or that between a liquid and a solid...

 (surface-active substance, a type of chemical that includes detergents). The air bubbles are created during mixing of the plastic (flowable, not hardened) concrete, and most of them survive to be part of the hardened concrete. The primary purpose of air entrainment is to increase the durability of the hardened concrete, especially in climates subject to freeze-thaw; the secondary purpose is to increase workability of the concrete while in a plastic state.

While hardened concrete appears solid, it is porous, having small capillaries resulting from the evaporation of water beyond that required for the hydration reaction

Mineral hydration

Mineral hydration is an inorganic chemical reaction where water is added to the crystal structure of a mineral, usually creating a new mineral, usually called a hydrate....

. A water:cement ratio (w/c) of approximately 0.25 (this means 25 parts water for every 100 parts cement) is required for all the cement particles to hydrate. Water beyond that is surplus and is used to make the plastic concrete more workable or flowable. Most concrete has a w/c of 0.45 to 0.60, which means there is substantial excess water that will not react with cement

Portland cement

Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world because it is a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco and most non-specialty grout...

. Eventually the excess water evaporates, leaving little pores in its place. Environmental water can later fill these voids. During freeze-thaw cycles, the water occupying those pores expands and creates stresses which lead to tiny cracks. These cracks allow more water into the concrete and the cracks enlarge. Eventually the concrete spalls - chunks break off. The failure of reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...

 is most often due to this cycle, which is accelerated by moisture reaching the reinforcing steel. Steel expands when it rusts, and these forces create even more cracks, letting in more water.

The air bubbles are typically 10 to 500 micrometre

Micrometre

A micrometer , is by definition 1×10-6 of a meter .In plain English, it means one-millionth of a meter . Its unit symbol in the International System of Units is μm...

s in diameter (0.0004 to 0.02 in) and are closely spaced. The air bubble can be compressed a little, and so the bubbles act to reduce or absorb stresses from freezing. Air entraining was introduced in the 1930s and most modern concrete, especially if subjected to freezing temperatures, is air-entrained. The bubbles contribute to workability by acting as a sort of lubricant for all the aggregate

Construction Aggregate

Construction aggregate, or simply "aggregate", is a broad category of coarse particulate material used in construction, including sand, gravel, crushed stone, slag, recycled concrete and geosynthetic aggregates. Aggregates are the most mined material in the world...

s and large particles in a concrete mix.

In addition to entrained air, hardened concrete also contains entrapped air. These are larger bubbles, and are typically less evenly distributed than entrained air. Entrapped air is considered to not make a positive contribution to durability and is undesirable though not entirely avoidable.

Air entrainment in hydraulic structures

In hydraulic engineering

Hydraulic engineering

This article is about civil engineering. For the mechanical engineering discipline see Hydraulic machineryHydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive...

, air bubble entrainment is defined as the entrapment of air bubbles and pockets that are advected within the turbulent flow. The entrainment of air packets can be localised or continuous along the air–water interface. Examples of localised aeration

Aeration

Aeration is the process by which air is circulated through, mixed with or dissolved in a liquid or substance.-Aeration of liquids:-Methods:Aeration of liquids is achieved by:...

 include air entrainment by plunging water jet and at hydraulic jump

Hydraulic jump

A hydraulic jump is a phenomenon in the science of hydraulics which is frequently observed in open channel flow such as rivers and spillways. When liquid at high velocity discharges into a zone of lower velocity, a rather abrupt rise occurs in the liquid surface...

. Bubbles are entrained locally at the intersection of the impinging jet with the surrounding waters. The intersecting perimeter is a singularity in terms of both air entrainment and momentum exchange, and the air is entrapped at the discontinuity between the impinging jet flow and the receiving pool of water. Interfacial aeration is defined as the air entrainment process along an air–water interface, usually parallel to the flow direction.

In hydraulic structures, free-surface aeration is commonly observed: i.e., the white waters. The air bubble entrainment may be localised or continuous along an interface (water jets, spillway

Spillway

A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of flows from a dam or levee into a downstream area, typically being the river that was dammed. In the UK they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways release floods so that the water does not overtop and damage or even destroy...

chutes). Despite recent advances, there are some basic concerns about the extrapolation of laboratory results to large size prototype structures.